Nature Communications (Nov 2023)
A smooth tubercle bacillus from Ethiopia phylogenetically close to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex
- Bazezew Yenew,
- Arash Ghodousi,
- Getu Diriba,
- Ephrem Tesfaye,
- Andrea Maurizio Cabibbe,
- Misikir Amare,
- Shewki Moga,
- Ayinalem Alemu,
- Binyam Dagne,
- Waganeh Sinshaw,
- Hilina Mollalign,
- Abyot Meaza,
- Mengistu Tadesse,
- Dinka Fikadu Gamtesa,
- Yeshiwork Abebaw,
- Getachew Seid,
- Betselot Zerihun,
- Melak Getu,
- Matteo Chiacchiaretta,
- Cyril Gaudin,
- Michael Marceau,
- Xavier Didelot,
- Getachew Tolera,
- Saro Abdella,
- Abebaw Kebede,
- Muluwork Getahun,
- Zemedu Mehammed,
- Philip Supply,
- Daniela Maria Cirillo
Affiliations
- Bazezew Yenew
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Arash Ghodousi
- Vita-Salute San Raffaele University
- Getu Diriba
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Ephrem Tesfaye
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Andrea Maurizio Cabibbe
- IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute
- Misikir Amare
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Shewki Moga
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Ayinalem Alemu
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Binyam Dagne
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Waganeh Sinshaw
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Hilina Mollalign
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Abyot Meaza
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Mengistu Tadesse
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Dinka Fikadu Gamtesa
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Yeshiwork Abebaw
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Getachew Seid
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Betselot Zerihun
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Melak Getu
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Matteo Chiacchiaretta
- IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute
- Cyril Gaudin
- Univ. Lille, CNRS, Inserm, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1019 - UMR 9017 - CIIL - Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille
- Michael Marceau
- Univ. Lille, CNRS, Inserm, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1019 - UMR 9017 - CIIL - Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille
- Xavier Didelot
- School of Life Sciences and Department of Statistics, University of Warwick
- Getachew Tolera
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Saro Abdella
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Abebaw Kebede
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Muluwork Getahun
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Zemedu Mehammed
- Ethiopian Public Health Institute
- Philip Supply
- Univ. Lille, CNRS, Inserm, CHU Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1019 - UMR 9017 - CIIL - Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille
- Daniela Maria Cirillo
- Vita-Salute San Raffaele University
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42755-9
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 14,
no. 1
pp. 1 – 11
Abstract
Abstract The Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) includes several human- and animal-adapted pathogens. It is thought to have originated in East Africa from a recombinogenic Mycobacterium canettii-like ancestral pool. Here, we describe the discovery of a clinical tuberculosis strain isolated in Ethiopia that shares archetypal phenotypic and genomic features of M. canettii strains, but represents a phylogenetic branch much closer to the MTBC clade than to the M. canettii strains. Analysis of genomic traces of horizontal gene transfer in this isolate and previously identified M. canettii strains indicates a persistent albeit decreased recombinogenic lifestyle near the emergence of the MTBC. Our findings support that the MTBC emergence from its putative free-living M. canettii-like progenitor is evolutionarily very recent, and suggest the existence of a continuum of further extant derivatives from ancestral stages, close to the root of the MTBC, along the Great Rift Valley.
